People diagnosed with multiple sclerosis are being invited to enrol in a new clinical trial being led by a team in Edinburgh to test whether vaccination against a common virus could help treat their condition.

Scotland has some of the highest rates of MS in the world. The condition develops when the immune system, which usually protects the body by fighting off infection, instead attacks the brain and spinal cord.

The trial is being set up to look at both the safety of a new investigational vaccine against the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and its potential effect on the disease.

EBV infects more than 90 per cent of people in the UK. Most people do not become ill with it, but it can lead to glandular fever. Once infected, the virus remains hidden in the body for life but can become active again.

The hope is that the vaccine could keep the virus, which is thought to be a potential underlying cause of MS, suppressed.

The researchers say the trial represents an early stage in development of a potential new approach to treating MS.

The study, led by the University of Edinburgh and sponsored by pharmaceutical company Moderna, is seeking to recruit 180 people aged between 18 and 55 at sites across the world who have been diagnosed with MS in the last two years and are also carrying EBV.

National Chief Investigator for the trial, Director of the MS and Neuroimmunology Hub at the Anne Rowling Clinic in Edinburgh, Professor David Hunt says research is at an early stage:

“This is an important and innovative trial to treat multiple sclerosis by targeting EBV infection using a vaccine.

“Currently, almost all of our disease-modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis work by suppressing the body’s immune system. The discovery that EBV plays an important role in the development of multiple sclerosis is opening new avenues for treating the condition.”

The so-called ‘Horizon’ trial is being undertaken as part of the ‘Moderna-UK Government Strategic Partnership’, coordinated by the UK Health Security Agency.

It is part of a wider Vaccine Innovation Pathway being supported by NHS Research Scotland alongside the National Institute of Health and Care Research.

Scotland’s Chief Scientist for Health, Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, says the trial is an important first step:

“The partnership between the University of Edinburgh, the National Institute of Health and Care Research and NHS Research Scotland has enabled the UK to be the first country outside the US to open the study, affording more UK patients the choice to participate in the trial.

“That is a vital step which could potentially lead to a significant breakthrough underpinned by Scottish leadership.”

People selected for the trial will receive either the investigational vaccine or a placebo jab.

The trial will last for approximately two and a half years and participants are asked to commit to attending clinic appointments at least 14 times, and to having 21 phone calls with the clinical trial team, over that time.

More information is available from the NIHR Be Part of Research website.

 

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